


From Pain, We will Grow

by AwkwardDuckProducktions



Series: Team What's Wrong with Healing (revised) [3]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: (Is that foreshadowing??), Almost death, Canon Disabled Character, Cutter aimed for bone, Dom needs a hug, Fact being that he is awful, Find out next week, Hurt/Comfort, Isabel needs a hug, Mentions of messy illadvised surgery, Mentions of opioids, Mentions of surgery, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Poly, Renee needs a hug, Someone take them to a ski resort and give them hot chocolate, They all need fucking hugs, You can't change the facts, disaster lesbian, for now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 07:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16342400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwkwardDuckProducktions/pseuds/AwkwardDuckProducktions
Summary: Remember how Renee was fucking shot?:3





	From Pain, We will Grow

Dominik awoke with a hand clawing at his shirt. He would have been annoyed, if it wasn't his wife. Especially not his wife letting it uncharacteristically pitiful noises as her body flopped. He checked the clock and relieved that he didn't have to work for another three hours. His heart screamed for him to call in, but knowing that there was someone else here calmed his nerves. Isabel had just moved in a couple days ago. And she was wonderful company. Dom immediately took a liking to her, her cool composure and warm smiles was everything you wished for in winter. She was a little concerned about her place here in a married couple's home but if Dom had to tell her each day that she was a treasured friend, then he would. And today, he needed her more than ever.  
Renee didn't wake when his alarm finally went off. Usually she would wake with him just to cling onto him for a few more minutes. Little things like that made him love the morning. Little things like that made the years she was gone worse. A part of him expected this to be some elaborate dream. The crash, the requirement, her. She had always been one for the dramatics.  
"Ren Ren?" Dom's voice gentle as always dragged her away from the last bit of struggle sleep she could get. Her blurry eyes opened to see him, dressed for work wearing a concern smile. "Bad pain day?"  
She nodded, trusting that if she opened her mouth it won't only be words to fall out.  
"Do you want your pain medicine?" He asked already knowing her answer.  
She shook her head and curled back under the blankets.  
"Listen," he knelt down beside the bed, "I know there's stuff you can't talk about just yet, I have my own things that I want to tell you, I really do, but I can't. Hopefully soon, we can get to that place. But whatever is going on in that big beautiful brain of yours shouldn't stop you from taking your medicine. Or stop you from using your crutch."  
A grumble in defiance came from underneath the covers.  
"Yes, I know that technically going to a coffee shop isn't 'heavy walking.' I'm not going to force you to use it, but..." He rested his cheek on top of the covers, inches away fron her face.  
Her hand slid under the covers towards his. Words died on his lips. He stood a little too quick.  
"I'm going to make you some food and bring it up here. Please try to eat it." And with that, he left.

Renee wasn't trying to be difficult and although she knew that Dom would never refer to her as such, she can't help but to feel so. She laid on her side, unable to move. Cement filled her veins, each breath she felt it crack and break inside of her. Somewhere deep in her, Renee had a voice too similar to her mother's scolding her for not using the resources given to her. She would... eventually. Just a few more deep breaths and she'll eat whatever Dom prepared. But her stomach knotted and twisted, like it was playing jump rope with her intestines. And she found herself back at square one.  
"Min- Renee? You up?" Isabel asked opening the door.  
Renee gave a halfhearted groan.  
"Dom asked me to bring you some food and your meds."  
She gave a louder halfhearted groan.  
"Yeah okay. Well I'm to going to set this delicious-" she looked down with disgust "-bowl of oatmeal on your nightstand. Do you want help sitting up?"  
A hand crept out from under the covers, only to pat the spot beside her. A confused chuckle escaped the captain.  
"Do you want me to join you?" Renee nodded. "You're going to have to use your words because I really don't know if you're nodding under the covers."  
"Yes. Join my blanket city." She sounded like she just ran with bulls, strained and breathless.  
"I'm pretty sure there's something... bad about being in a married couple's bed." The joke pulled the corners of her lips as it fell. She tried to fix it, letting them sit neutral.  
"Oh, Dom's okay with it." Her shaky hand reached for hers, just barely out of reach. "But I need you." Slowly her words came. Filled the air around them. Swirled and spun until Isabel was swept into its currents, leading her to Renee. She joined her in the bed and almost immediately Renee found her place, right on top of her heart. Her whole body seemed to envelope her, without much thought to how it might appear.  
"Never took you for a cuddler..." She joked before adding, "or a night dress person."  
"Pants hurt."  
"Oh. That's fair." Renee knew today was going to be a bad pain day. Her leg was already aching when they went to bed last night. Which is when she really should have done something. There's a lot of things she should have done sooner. But the bed and her husband were right there. At least she had enough sense to not try to put on pajama pants. "Hey Renee?"  
"mmm?"  
"Why are ignoring the fact you got shot?" Why does she fall for the bluntest of people? Between Dominik's pessimistic optimism and Isabel's ability to read her like a big font book, there was no chance at hiding.  
"I'm not." She whined against her warm chest. Isabel couldn't help but to chuckle at this version of the commander she had never seen. The deep rumble from her chest filled Renee's ear and her heart with joy.  
"Oh really? Then why aren't you taking your pain medication? The doctors gave you the good stuff."  
She grumbled again.  
"Are you scared?"  
Renee nodded.  
"Of opioids?"  
She shook her head. A sudden wave of violent pain raced through her body and a gasp forced its way out of her lips. Her vision wavered as she drowned in sharp pain.  
"Of doctors?" She asked carefully. But Renee nodded anyways before answering.  
"Kind of hard to trust them..." Eyes screwed shut as she tried to breathe through the pain, "when you've seen..."  
"What they could do?" Isabel offered. She nodded once again. "Minkowski..."  
"I don't... like it." The knots in her stomach traveled up into her lungs. "The fear. But..." It was all too much. Her body harden under the pain as the cement finally took her airways. A gentle hand found itself onher thigh, right above the source of the pain. Warmth that could only be found in another emitted from that hand. Just the minuscule of relief was enough to make her feel the weight of restless night on her.  
"I get it." The captain assured. "I get it." She didn't remove her hand though the only thing that didn't make this wrong was a thin satin dress and that weighed on her mind. She forced that thought back. "I watched my entire crew die because of a doctor. But..." She stole a sigh. "He was operating in space, under Goddard. Where ethical guidelines go to die."  
Renee mumbled a laugh.  
"And I can tell you that your medicine is widely prescribed to many people. My dad had to take it for his old war pain." Cold lips pressed against her collarbone. Try as she might, to have Isabel there and to be wrapped in her arms sleep had the unfair advantage against Renee. "Do you want a heating pad? That might help better than just me."  
"You're perfect as is." She whispered.  
"Alright. Do you want some food?"  
Ever so slightly, she shook her head.  
"Do you really just want to use me as your personal pillow?"  
"Payback." Small mischievous grin danced across Isabel collar.  
"No, I was making sure you didn't die in the middle of the night on the trip home." Isabel began to correct until her smile couldn't stay. Long days that bled into months carried a familiar wave of anxiety. From the meeting with Cutter until the night Isabel escaped the crash site, she was glued to Renee. She didn't have much medical training and Jacobi was no better but the gaps in their individual knowledge fit like a puzzle with the things they did know. But even though the surgery was a success mostly, there was still the issue of lack of supplies. They first ran out of pain medicine. The last bit going to Renee because even though they managed to remove the bullet, they couldn't fix the shattered bone. She would only wake for short periods of time before her body would pass out from pain.  
"Isi?" Renee looked up at her, her dark honey eyes knitted in worry. Says and nights she spent wondering if she was ever going to see them again. Her head on Renee's chest listening to her faint heartbeat.  
"Would you trust tylenol?" A look of confusion wandered into her face. "Like maybe we could build up. Both of us. Into trusting doctors. But you definitely need some pain medicine. Or a heating pad. Your pick." She slowly blinked, concentrating hard on staying awake.  
"You?"  
"I'll come back but you need either a heating pad or tylenol." She thought long and hard again before holding up one finger. "Alright, I'll grab you a heating pad. Stay here." Isabel squirmed out of her grasp and rose from the bed, blinking back the disoriented feeling of need and want creating cyclones in her head. She shouldn't hate to admit it but she needed help too.

Dom returned home after many hours of doing menial tasks and avoiding questions. Journalists are curious creatures and man who's wife is back from the dead is just had to be the most interesting thing of the year. And it's not that he didn't want to talk about her, they just wanted to know the juicy bits. How is she adjusting? Are you planning on leaving her? What kind of horror stories has she shared? He wanted to shout back at them. But there's a reason he sticks out like a sore thumb, and it's not just his height. Getting angry won't help.  
He made his way to the bedroom, too wired to actually sleep but just wanting to check on her. Gently opening the door, he found his wife peacefully asleep. Her body curled around no other than Isabel Lovelace's sleeping form. The oatmeal partially eaten on the nightstand and a bottle of tylenol next to it. Relief like the ocean coming to shore washed over him. It's better than he had done all month. He closed the door just as gentle as he had opened it and made his way downstairs. With new peace and abundant energy, Dom started plans for his newest mission. Retrieve Douglas Effiel.


End file.
